Geraldine Noyes, my childhood gardening mentor, always had a posy on her kitchen table. In winter it might have been no more than a sprig of witch hazel and the first spearing Iris unguicularis but, as the season went on, the posies would become more complex, always changing according to what was happening in the garden. They were not overly considered compositions, but distillations of the season and an opportunity to observe the garden at close quarters. The posies were a moment caught and savoured, always humble and delightful for the plants being on the wild side and particular to her loves and sensibilities.

When I started gardening at scale and growing the garden at Home Farm for my client Frances Mossman, I kept up the tradition and very quickly found that the posies were very instructive. Not only did they capture a micro-season or mood, they also allowed you to combine plants in often unexpected ways. Things from different parts of the garden that I hadn’t ever thought of using together or colour combinations that I’d never considered in these spontaneous couplings. When Huw came to stay when I was gardening there, Frances would let him loose to fuel his love of combining the plants and thus began this interesting cross over of me doing the garden making and he the reinterpretation through the arrangements.